Genachowski Wi-Fi Proposal Meets with Auto Industry Pushback
The automotive industry asked the FCC to drop a proposal to make spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band available for unlicensed use on a secondary basis. The opposition wasn’t a surprise because the automotive industry raised concerns in January, after former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced at the CES an initiative to free up 195 MHz of spectrum for Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band (CD Jan 16 p1). The automotive industry plans to use part of the spectrum targeted by Genachowski, the 5850-5925 MHz band, for a vehicle-to-vehicle warning system, which is already being tested.
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Allowing Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) use in the band would compromise the use of the spectrum for dedicated short range communication systems (DSRC), said the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers in joint comments (http://bit.ly/11pkQpt). “DSRC and other connected vehicle technologies are poised to provide significant public safety, traffic management, environmental, and other benefits, and become central components of the nation’s twenty-first century highway transportation system,” the groups said. “DSRC is a wireless technology that uses the 5.9 GHz band for active vehicle safety systems, which may help prevent or mitigate traffic accidents by providing drivers with greater situational awareness of nearby vehicles and roadway conditions (through audible/visual warning systems), and may in the future intervene in emergencies (by temporarily taking control of the vehicle braking/steering)."
The automotive industry filing said such warning systems are already in an “advanced stage of development” and ready for “widespread deployment.” They are also being deployed internationally, the groups said. “In Europe, [intelligent transportation systems] using DSRC will be deployed starting in 2015 on an opt-in basis, and there are similar initiatives in Japan, Korea, and China,” the group said. “ABI Research estimates that government mandates and automotive industry initiatives will lead to the widespread adoption of connected vehicle technologies, pushing the penetration rate to 61.8 percent by 2027.” The filing warns that these systems are “safety-of-life” services “that cannot tolerate any interruption, delay, or degradation.” The filing presents technical data making the case that unlicensed use of the 5.9 GHz band “could cause harmful co-channel, adjacent channel, and out-of-band interference to DSRC services."
"It is unclear at this juncture whether current rules governing unlicensed operations at 5 GHz can or should be extended to the ... band, and more generally, the technical issues surrounding any proposals to share this spectrum with U-NII devices will require much additional study,” Toyota said (http://bit.ly/177sVaQ). “Given the stakes involved in terms of protection of life and property, Toyota strongly urges the Commission to take a cautious and deliberate approach that is focused on building a thorough empirical record to avoid harmful interference with DSRC systems before considering the implementation of sharing rules in the ... band."
But the CEA urged the FCC to “seize this opportunity” to both reallocate the 5 GHz spectrum to unlicensed use and change the rules for the band. “Unlicensed spectrum is a key component of any plan to address the ongoing capacity shortage,” CEA said (http://bit.ly/14bx2fD). “Unlicensed spectrum can be used for data offload, which significantly reduces networks’ capacity constraints and enables carriers to use complementary spectrum resources more efficiently. Access to unlicensed spectrum also promotes innovation by lowering barriers to entry. This environment has fostered the development of exciting and important technologies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and others."
Google and Microsoft said in a joint filing the rules for the 5 GHz spectrum bands should support widespread unlicensed use of the band. “The benefits of expanding unlicensed access to spectrum are widely known and beyond dispute,” they said (http://bit.ly/13mIp5t). “The unlicensed technology sector is large and growing rapidly, with unlicensed technologies contributing many billions of dollars to the U.S. economy. ... Just as licensed and unlicensed uses are complementary, a balance of licensed and unlicensed access, both above and below 1 GHz, will best accommodate the nation’s spectrum needs."
The Wireless ISP Association said its members rely on other 5 GHz spectrum for their operations (http://bit.ly/16toQ1m). “Given congestion and capacity constraints in existing unlicensed bands and the demand for fixed broadband services in rural areas where other broadband service is often not available, increasing the amount of unlicensed spectrum is perhaps the most important action the Commission can take,” WISPA said. “Because the ... bands are immediately adjacent to bands that are used by WISPs under rules that enable outdoor use, the availability of a significant amount of outdoor 5 GHz spectrum will help alleviate congestion and relieve capacity constraints to enable the delivery of additional broadband services.”